Rail services face Sunday shutdown in pay dispute

Picture: Ian Rutherford

ALASTAIR DALTON and SHAN ROSS

ALL Sunday trains would be halted if ScotRail drivers vote to ban overtime as part of a pay dispute, their union has told The Scotsman.

Passengers travelling from late October onwards could be forced to find alternative transport in what would be the first industrial action by ScotRail drivers for 11 years.

Aslef, which represents nearly all ScotRail’s 1,100 drivers, is staging a ballot for action after members twice rejected pay offers recommended by the union’s leadership.

The result is due on 18 October, making 27 October the first possible Sunday to be hit.

Aslef Scottish secretary Kevin Lindsay told The Scotsman he “anticipated no service” on Sundays because drivers’ shifts on that day were based on them working overtime.

Passengers who could be affected include rugby fans heading for the Scotland v South Africa international at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on 17 November.

Christmas shoppers using the rail network in Glasgow – the biggest in the UK outside London – could also face major disruption.

If the overtime ban continues after Christmas, football fans would also be hit, with a full card of Scottish Premiership matches on 29 December.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Alex Johnstone said: “The days of unions holding a gun to the head of governments are well and truly gone. The only real option is for everyone to get round the table and sort this out.

“As ever, the biggest losers should this go ahead would be the customers, and by default the many businesses who depend on them travelling by rail at these times.”

Aslef said ScotRail drivers were holding out for a bigger pay increase to bring them into line with colleagues at other train-operating companies.

Further talks with ScotRail are planned for next Wednesday.

Members have rejected both a 3.3 per cent, one-year increase and a subsequent 6.4 per cent, 18-month offer which would take their basic pay to £41,713.

Drivers voted by 445-407 to reject the latter offer.

Mr Lindsay said ScotRail drivers were paid some £12,000 less than those at other train firms operating in Scotland such as East Coast, Virgin Trains and First TransPennine Express.

He said: “They are the worst-paid train drivers in Scotland and one of the bottom few in Britain.

“From the outside, this looks like a generous offer [by ScotRail] but it has to be kept in context of the industry you are working in – that’s the comparison. You cannot compare a train driver to a lorry driver or public sector worker.

“We are aware of the damage a strike can have, but any sort of action is a last resort.”

A ScotRail spokesman said: “We are extremely disappointed that the offer of 6.4 per cent has been rejected.

“That offer, which would take drivers’ basic pay to almost £42,000, is a very good one in the current economic climate.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency, which controls the ScotRail franchise, said: “We urge all parties concerned to get back round the negotiating table as soon as possible to resolve this dispute and avoid any potential disruption to passengers.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.